Week 1: Creative Writing Assignments. Due Monday, January 9.
Review the “ideas for writing” in The Poet’s Companion, p. 28-29 and 92-93. (BEFORE you
start, read p 11-29, and 85-93 before starting. That’s Introduction, Chapter 1 “Writing and
Knowing” and the chapter called “Images.”)
1. List of Images.
Starting today, develop a list of 10 images from your experiences this week. Each image is like a
sketch of something concrete and real – an object, a plant, an animal, a person, or even a part of
something larger (your left hand: a single leaf; a rear-view mirror). Look at what’s around you
and write about that.
Each image is a direct description, what you can perceive directly with your senses. It’s NOT
about your emotions, memories, or thoughts – it’s just direct presentation of the thing itself.
These “images” should consist of one or two sentences. You can treat them as poems or prose or
just playing around. Examples:
The squash smashed in the compost hold water, like an orange bowl. There are tiny claw marks
on the rims.
A two-year-old girl determined
to propel herself down the bumpy sidewalk
on roller skates!
The gray cat stares out the window
at leaves falling on the driveway.
This focus on a specific image is part of the Imagist tradition in English language poetry,
developed in the early 20th century by Ezra Pound and others. (Pound famously said: “The thing
itself is always an adequate symbol.”) Images are central in other traditions as well, such as
haiku, which often consists of a single, powerful image, as in this one by Kikau (Milocz 6):
Above the boat,
bellies
of wild geese.
Capture images from your daily life, perhaps noting them on a piece of paper or that device you
carry in your pocket. Submit the list of 10 images in whatever form you like (as prose sentences,
as little poems, as haiku…)
2. Object/History poem
This is exercise 2 (Poet’s Companion, p. 28). Make the list and write the poem as suggested.
Write 20 lines or more; let it be expansive, fill it up with images of real things in your
environment. For at least one of the objects in your poem, give some insight into its importance
to you or meaning in your life. You might make this the main focus of the poem, or perhaps
you’ll want to expand on the meaning of several objects.
Use the technique of imagism here: start by describing the object clearly, using your senses. So,
it’s not enough to write:
The cork board is covered with bits of paper and old pictures.
Describe, give a picture:
Here’s a postcard reproduction of a painting
a brown-haired woman holds a yellow-haired child in her arms
a version of that painting hung over my grandmother’s fireplace
for fifty years, growing dirtier, hiding the child’s white shirt
Let the reader of the poem learn something about your life and what matters to you.
3. Love/Hate Poem.
This is exercise 4 (Poet’s Companion, p. 29). Make the lists and write the poem as suggested.
Have fun. Use imagery and play with the structure as you see fit. Let this be 14 lines or more.
4. Another exercise, your choice.
Choose another exercise from the suggestions (p 28-29 and 92-93) and do it. Note which
exercise it is. Whatever you write about, use sensory imagery. Be expansive; write 14 lines or
more.